Back in 2012 the Navy announced big plans for expanding its wave energy test site in Hawaii, to accommodate more ambitious technology. It looks like all systems are go now, and the Energy Department has just announced a new $10 million funding opportunity for testing two deep-water wave energy conversion (WEC) devices at the site. The test facility (formally, the Wave Energy Test Site) at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Oahu has been in use for about ten years now for demo-scale devices at about 30 meters. The new $10 million in funding will go to test larger devices at 60 and 80 meters, which according to our source at NavyTimes.com is about where you’d want them to be for producing electricity at commercial scale. Now that the Navy has a commercial-grade test facility available, the Energy Department is not messing around with small fry. The new WEC funding opportunity is open only to WEC developers that fit this description: The Water Program is seeking applications from wave energy conversion technology developers that are in advanced stages of technology development and are prepared to design, build and test technology at close to full-scale in the ocean environment. Aside from checking out how the devices perform, the Energy Department is going to scrutinize their levelized cost of energy in order to formulate cost comparisons with other energy sources. The last time we checked out WETS (for Wave Energy Test Site — clever, no?) was in June 2012, when the company Ocean Power Technologies was testing a utility scale wave energy converter called PowerBuoy® PB150. That device was a scaled up version of an earlier PowerBuoy installed at the test site. Launched in 2010, it gave Marine Corps Base Hawaii the distinction of being the first facility in the US to hook up to a grid-connected wave energy converter. The end goal is to take Marine Corps Base Hawaii off the state’s electric grid, from which it was racking up $25 million in annual electricity bills as of 2012. In addition to wave power, solar panels are at work along with other strategies to achieve net zero energy. A parallel goal is to take the base’s vehicles off petroleum, with the help of electric vehicles and biofuel, including biofuel reclaimed from cooking oil used at the base. If this is all starting to ring some bells, you’re probably thinking of the Army’s eloquently stated Net Zero Vision for national security and environmental stewardship at bases throughout the US, as well as other ambitious DoD initiatives such as the 100 percent EV goal at Los Angeles Air Force Base. Statewide, Hawaii has emerged as a national test bed for transitioning out of expensive, polluting petroleum fuels and into energy sources that are less risky and more sustainable. Local innovators and clean tech start-ups are being motivated to engage in the effort through public-private partnerships like WETS and Hawaii’s Energy Excelerator, which recently got another $30 million from the Navy.

Solar Wind Energy Tower Inc. won approval from an Arizona city to develop a $1.5 billion project that would use ambient desert heat to create a draft to generate electricity, in a concrete colossus that would be the tallest structure in North America. The 2,250-feet (686-meter) project, which resembles a nuclear plant’s cooling tower, would be capable of generating at a average rate of about 435 megawatt-hours over the course of a year, Ron Pickett, chief executive officer of the three-year-old Annapolis, Maryland-based company, said in a phone interview today. In July and August, the Southwest’s hottest and driest months, the plant could produce more than 1,200 megawatt-hours. The project, which doesn’t yet have financing or a customer for its electricity output, would use technology created by Solar Wind. In the dry desert air, water would be injected in a mist near the top of tower, causing the air to cool and gain density. The draft created by the sinking air would exceed 50 miles per hour as it’s forced through a ring of turbines at the tower’s base, generating electricity. “This is a game-changer in certain areas — hot, dry climates,” Pickett said. The company is proposing this project near the Mexico border to prove the concept, with the goal of licensing the process to developers. The technology would work in Africa, Australia and “you can throw a dart in the Mideast, and it works there,” he said. San Luis, a city of 26,000 residents about 20 miles southwest of Yuma, Arizona, agreed to give the project necessary rights of way and sell it water under a 50-year contract. Terms weren’t disclosed for the agreement, which was approved by the city council on April 23. Solar Wind gained 57 percent to 1.3 cents at the close in New York. The company, which expects to get the project operating as early as 2018, has a market value of $6 million. Local utilities and the U.S. Defense Department have inquired about buying the project’s power, said Pickett, who was previously CEO at Telkonet Inc., a smart-grid technology company.

TOKYO -- Developers of solar projects in Japan are looking to rooftops, empty lots and industrial parks in response to constraints limiting connections to the grid and difficulties finding suitable land. Government approvals for smaller-sized projects of less than 1 megawatt have outnumbered larger projects every month since May 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance based on official figures. The pattern of approvals reverses the trend set when Japan first began offering incentives for clean-energy in July 2012. Developers initially favored “mega” projects built on large patches of open land. “This was somewhat expected as less land is becoming available for large-scale projects,” said Takehiro Kawahara, a Tokyo-based analyst for BNEF. “There are also grid connection issues,” he said, referring to some areas in Japan where congestion on electric transmission lines is forcing developers to review plans. From May 2013 through January — the latest available figures provided by the government — Japan approved 6,500 megawatts of solar projects in the 10-kilowatt to 1-megawatt category. That’s double the approvals for larger projects. A solar plant with 1 megawatt of capacity can generate enough electricity for about 316 typical Japanese homes. Projects of less than 1 megawatt are usually found on rooftops, unused land, or in industrial areas, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies said in a report in March. The segment accounted for about a half of Japan’s solar capacity added after the introduction of inducements designed to boost clean-energy development, according to the report. Small-Scale Solar “Solar projects in this criteria used to be for corporate social responsibility purposes,” the Tokyo-based group said. “After the incentive program began, various types of businesses and groups entered the market as the awareness for clean energy grew and projects offer economic incentives.” Japan’s government began the renewables program in July 2012 following the March 2011 Fukushima disaster. The program requires utilities to buy power from clean-energy providers at premium prices under so-called feed-in tariffs. Japan was the third-largest market for renewable energy in 2013 when measured by annual installations, according to research from London-based BNEF. A new long-term energy plan approved by Japan’s cabinet this month suggests solar is good for mid- and small-scale power generation. Such projects can be built close to consumers, saving on the costs associated with connecting them to the transmission grid. Government Support “Solar is suitable for self-consumption at homes and also suitable for distributed power generation,” the energy plan said. “The use of middle- and small-sized solar power is spreading on idled land and rooftops of schools and factories, and the government will continue to support such efforts.” Nevertheless, costs remain a hurdle. Small solar projects typically cost more for equipment and construction, while operating and maintenance cost tends to be lower than for larger-sized projects, according to a report released in March by a committee at the trade ministry that’s responsible for an annual review of government clean-energy incentives. The panel has discussed whether Japan should set a separate rate for solar projects smaller than 0.5 megawatts, since the average cost of those systems tends to be more expensive. The committee decided not to introduce such a rate this year and will continue to examine the matter. The condition of Japan’s buildings may also be a concern for some developers. “Buildings need to be strong as panels will be too heavy for old ones,” Eiichiro Gotoh, president of Ichigo Eco Energy Co. (2337), a Tokyo-based solar-project developer, said in an interview. “You won’t be able to repair those buildings” once panels are installed, he said.

Allan Jones is the Chief Development Officer of Energy and Climate Change for the city of Sydney, Australia. Inspired by low carbon innovation in Copenhagen he has implemented plans to upgrade Sydney to renewable energy sources for all of its power, heating, and cooling by 2030. Sydney is the capitol of New South Wales and is the most populated city in Australia, with more than 4.5 million inhabitants. Australia has experienced the early impacts of man-made climate change severely. Residents of Sydney and its surroundings have endured extreme drought and flooding cycles alongside deadly heatwaves and bushfires. Sydney officials like Allan have responded with determination, putting a process in place to transform their city an innovative low carbon hub to help limit the impacts of climate change and boost the city’s energy security. They are pushing ahead with a large-scale low carbon transition, despite the regressive position held by some key figures in the national government. Electricity is a key focus for Allan as it accounts for around 80% of Sydney’s greenhouse gas footprint. This is primarily due to electricity being sourced from coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley. This coal power is inefficient as well as highly polluting – two-thirds of the energy from the Hunter Valley is wasted in the form of heat at the point of production and in transmission through line loss. Allan has helped the city set a clear and comprehensive goal to ditch inefficient, polluting coal power and go 100% renewable by 2030. The initiative will provide Sydney with power, but also heating and cooling – using only clean, sustainable energy sources like wind, solar and waste. Wind and solar will be used to generate around 30% of the city’s electricity, with the other 70% coming from trigeneration or combined heat, power and cooling, that uses locally sourced biomass. Trigeneration is hugely advantageous in high-density environments like cities because excess waste and heat from electricity generation can be transferred to buildings or businesses that are in a close proximity. It is far more efficient than the present system that relies on coal power and other thermal plants. The plan is to only use local renewable energy sources in order to boost the efficiency and efficacy of the systems – by avoiding transmission losses and to avoid the storm damage risk that accompanies overhead electricity transmission lines. As such, Sydney’s solar photovoltaics project is the largest building-mounted solar PV program in Australia. When complete, the solar panels combined will cover more than 12,000m2 and will have a total solar electricity generation capacity of 1,250kWp. City officials, like Allan, are not stopping with their goal of 100% renewables. They recognize the benefits of further reducing their carbon footprint and future-proofing their city. Other initiatives that are underway include building energy and water efficiency retrofits alongside LED street and public domain lighting upgrades.

São Paulo is the wealthiest city in Brazil and the capital of the South-Eastern Brazilian State of São Paulo. It is at the heart of the Brazil’s booming economy and many people are drawn to the region from poor rural areas. The rising population caused a surge in solid waste and fossil fuel use that threatened major environmental damage – until the city developed a unique biogas project to harness the waste for generating power. The City of São Paulo produces, on a daily basis, 15,000 tons of waste, which is delivered to one of two solid waste landfill sites on the outskirts of town. The slow decomposition of organic matter present in the solid waste produces a biogas, rich in methane, which permeates the layers of material covering the landfills and is released into the atmosphere, contributing to harmful climate change. Through this process of decomposition São Paulo was emitting approximately 950,000 tonnes of methane from municipal solid waste and 25,000 tonnes of methane from wastewater treatment, representing about 1% of Brazil’s net greenhouse gas emissions. The impacts of climate change are already being felt across the country providing a strong incentive for action to help mitigate the problem. The gas from landfill sites also posed a threat to the wellbeing of residents living close by. As in many countries around the world, weak planning restrictions allowed homes to be built within close proximity of the waste sites. As such, some residents faced health hazards like the risk of injury through explosion, poor air quality, and serious illness from chemical and waste exposure, such as cancer. City of São Paulo officials instigated the Bandeirantes Landfill Gas to Energy Project (BLFGE) as a combined response to tackle the dual problems of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions from waste and the city’s increased reliance on fossil fuels. It became one of the first and largest methane-capture systems in the world. The BLFGE is a system for collecting, filtering, pressuring, and burning the biogas from the city’s waste site at Bandeirantes. Burning this gas in thermal electric plants prevents it from being released into the atmosphere and instead it is used to generate power for the city. The result is a twofold environmental gain: in addition to reducing the amount of methane released into the atmosphere, the need for sourcing more dirty energy is reduced. It is estimated that the project has prevented the release of methane gas equivalent to 8 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere between 2004 and 2012, while simultaneously producing clean energy. On top of this, the project has generated $35.5 million through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. This money was reinvested by city officials in surrounding communities through initiatives such as protecting housing in high-risk areas; creating parks to restore vegetation and control floods; building bicycle lanes; and launching environmental education and citizen engagement programs. Urban areas are responsible for 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions and city governments are institutions with huge potential for tackling this problem. São Paulo demonstrated this with the Bandeirantes project, which has now been replicated at the Sao Joao landfill and shared with other cities including Mexico City and Lagos.